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1881 - A.B. Simpson, ordained Presbyterian minister, resigns to do evangelistic work in New York. Practical and theological convictions play in to his departure: In the first case, he feels constrained in his fervour to reach as many as possible with the gospel, and in the second case he has differences of opinion with Reformed teaching on baptism and sanctification, as well as healing and eschatology. Before long, an independent congregation grows out of his activities.
1887 - Two societies begin: The Christian Alliance and the Evangelical Missionary Alliance, intended not as churches or denominations but as service arms for co-operating churches.
1889 - John Salmon, former Methodist pastor, invites Simpson to share his vision in Canada and ends up birthing the "Dominion [i.e., Canadian] Auxiliary Branch of the Christian Alliance." First president is William Howland, and the vice-presidents are John Salmon and Maggie Scott.
In the early years, in both Canada and the U.S., women are involved in all levels of ministry. A.B. Simson's wife, Margaret, serves as a member of the Board of Managers, as the superintendent of assignment of missionaries, and as financial secretary for many years (see Leslie Andrews paper on Simpson's views on women in ministry here). During this time woman are not, however, referred to as church pastors, ordinands, or elders. Neither does the Alliance self-identify as a denomination, nor its branches self-identify as organized churches.
1912 - A General Council agrees to a new constitution organizing the congregations/branches that have stabilized and, in this time, begins focusing more intently on foreign missions.
1914-1918 - World War
1918 - Women in Canada may now vote in federal elections
1918 - Women in Canada may now vote in federal elections
1920s - Edmonton's Beulah Tabernacle the first C&MA Church in the West. J.H. Woodward calls for help spreading the Word in the area and has four assistant circuit-preachers/ministers, one of whom is Muriel Owen. In the meantime, Margaret Connor begins (and preaches to) new congregations in Denzil, Allenbach, Elk and Major, Saskatchewan. In 1923 Woodward sends a summer student, Catherine McCoy, to help Connor begin a congregation in Greenvale, Saskatchewan. When Connor asks the C&MA to provide a man to take over congregations so she can keep planting more, in the process she is made an official C&MA worker. Later she becomes a pastor at Beulah. These women are not mentioned in this video but it gives a sense of the early days of the C&MA in the West.
1922 - Miss A.B. Rose preaches to and pastors a congregation in Lac LaBiche. Elsewhere, Raymond Francisco requests that the C&MA send a "really good young man to be a full-time pastor" for him so he can return to school. They send two women: Della Carstead and Grace Johns, from the Canadian Bible Institute.
1928 - The C&MA forms a District in the West and three women are on the District Executive Committee (DEXCOM), including Margaret Connor.
1928 - The Third Annual Conference of the C&MA decides to maintain current practice and not ordain women, but to maintain that they are deaconesses, as is the practice for A.B. Simpson south of the border.
1929 - Myrtle Bradley pastors a congregation in Regina, Saskatchewan, despite it having a male chairman, secretary and treasurer who were apparently capable. Many more stories about women in ministry in the Canadian C&MA during this period can be found in Barbara Howe's Forgotten Voices.
1928 - The Third Annual Conference of the C&MA decides to maintain current practice and not ordain women, but to maintain that they are deaconesses, as is the practice for A.B. Simpson south of the border.
1929 - Myrtle Bradley pastors a congregation in Regina, Saskatchewan, despite it having a male chairman, secretary and treasurer who were apparently capable. Many more stories about women in ministry in the Canadian C&MA during this period can be found in Barbara Howe's Forgotten Voices.
1960 - Dr. Turner, President of the C&MA, declares it has officially become a church denomination and should begin self-identifying as such. The dilemma now, as Alexandra Meek Sharman puts it, is that "[i]f Simpson's ecclesiology was to be followed women should no longer be able to serve as pastors or 'branch leaders' ... [or] the official role of an Elder" (40). Women continue to minister in roles available to them, still recognized as deaconesses.
1960s-80s - Significant growth in the Canadian branch of the C&MA, including its school, now called Canadian Bible College, in Regina, Saskatchewan. (I would be very interested in more information from this period).
1964-69 - Canada's Commission on the Status of Women
1976 - Anglican Church of Canada moves to begin ordaining women
1980s - Believing it true to the movement's initial impulses, at least one pastor, Rev. Ross Ingram of Southern Ontario, hires female pastors and places women on the elder's board of his church. When asked to remove women from the board he does not, arguing that his is acting within denominational precedent and is not in contradiction of Scripture's authority.
At this time the organization of local churches is simplified in distinction from regular practice. Until then churches had been run by an Executive Board (of women and men) and given spiritual oversight by an Elders' Board (all men). Now the two were rolled into one, and would operate as the Elders' Board, with less distinction between administration and spiritual leadership. This single Board would by virtue of the change be all male. One of the women affected by this change was Wendy Thomas, on staff at Cedarview Alliance Church in Nepean, Ontario, who at the time of the change was on her church's Executive Board. She did continue to serve in this capacity, however, because the change was in its early stages.
1982 - At the C&MA's General Assembly (GA), Pastor Royal Hamel raises the question whether women could serve as Elders. The C&MA's Board of Directors (BOD) commissions a report to be considered at the next GA, in 1984.
1984 - At the next GA, the comissioned report leads the BOD to release a statement called "The Basic Scriptural Principles of Women in Ministry" and to put forward four recommendations. Two were passed (regarding licensing women for various ministry functions) and one was struck down (which proposed that there be a list or eligible roles written up). The remaining recommendation -- which proposed that women not be eligible for elders' boards, for DEXCOM (the district leadership board), or for the national BOD -- was referred to committee. When the Committee on General Legislation brought it back to the floor the next day it was narrowly defeated and an exegetical paper was requested so a more informed discussion could take place.
(In the debate that took place there were arguments against women in leadership which drew support from the masculine grammar of eldership texts and which questioned the hermeneutic and commitment to Scripture's authority of those college and seminary professors in favour of women's leadership. Correlations with the ordination of homosexuals were drawn, and the seminary's President argued against such parallels. Apologies regarding some heated rhetoric followed the next day.)
(In the debate that took place there were arguments against women in leadership which drew support from the masculine grammar of eldership texts and which questioned the hermeneutic and commitment to Scripture's authority of those college and seminary professors in favour of women's leadership. Correlations with the ordination of homosexuals were drawn, and the seminary's President argued against such parallels. Apologies regarding some heated rhetoric followed the next day.)
It is in this year that an insertion is made to the accreditation policy which prohibits women from being Senior Pastors, which turns out to be the only such place in C&MA policy where such a restriction is explicit. (Referring also to the 2007 removal of this clause, which also took place without discussion with the constituency, in 2013 the then-new President and the BOD would apologize that this "should have been processed more thoroughly with our Alliance family of churches.")
At this time there were also at least two churches (I've been told about Ancaster and Scarborough Chinese) which were classified as unorganized and had women on their steering committees, and which then retained women as elders once organized.
1992 - The new President of the C&MA, Dr. Arnold Cook, thinks Schroeder-Tabah's interpretation of the prior ruling incorrect, and asks these churches to remove the women from their Elders' Boards. Two comply, but Westside does not, defending its course of action as proper.
1996 - At GA in Regina, a woman named Jean Daly is nominated to the BOD (as this aspect of the 1984 deferral had not been dealt with in the subsequent 1988 statement on the matter). The current BOD chairman, Rev. Keith Taylor of Beulah Alliance, looks for consistency with general practice in lieu of clear polity on the matter. Some debate takes place, and before a vote occurs the nominee in question withdraws her name. The following day Ross Howell expresses a general sorrow over some of the things that had been said in the course of what was an emotional debate.
1998 - The issue as it regard the BOD is raised again, and much healthier debate reportedly ensues. Five motions are presented, and all but one carries. From here on it becomes explicit that women will be allowed to serve on the BOD and DEXCOM, and will also be able to administer the ordinances. The motion regarding eldership is referred, however, to the next GA. Following the vote to allow women to the BOD (which passed by 60%), Miriam Charter is elected (with 75% of the vote) the first woman to serve on the C&MA's governing board since its early years.
2000 - After having consulted another commissioned paper on the matter, the BOD suggests that a consensus may not be reachable despite long arguments from many angles, and so seeks to make it possible for local churches to have Elders if they so choose. Some debate takes place regarding a motion to see to it that these Boards still have a majority of men, but the constitution is finally amended according to a statement from the Committee on General Legislation brought forward by its Chair, Paul Little, which said: "The local church may by a 2/3 majority choose to have women on their Board of Elders."
2007 - The BOD, with the DSs, adopts new and simplified licensing policy (formerly known as accreditation) which, along with many other details, does not carry over language referring to women as Senior Pastors. At GA 2012 is there widespread recognition that this had been the only place in C&MA policy where a restriction on such a thing was explicitly stated. In 2013, new President David Hearn issues an apology that this, along with the 1988 insertion of the clause, "should have been processed more thoroughly with our Alliance family of churches."
2008 - A motion brought to the floor of GA by the BOD asks for the manual's "Statement on Women in Ministry" to be rescinded. A motion is made and carried to postpone this discussion indefinitely, reportedly for the reason that a debate would detract from the "Kingdom business" at hand; namely, the church planting initiatives being put forward. (I later reflected disappointedly on this event here.)
2010 - GA is held outside Canada for the first time, in Turkey, and the tabled motion is not brought up again, other than in Round Table discussions. Sometime after this it is noted that the Statement on Women in Ministry had been removed from the C&MA website (but not formally from C&MA polity), replaced with the explanation:
"The BOD of the C&MA in Canada has ruled that the Position Statement “The Role of Women in Ministry” is inconsistent with legislation adopted by General Assembly (specifically, the Local Church Constitution). Consequently the Board has directed that the statement be removed from the website until such time as the General Assembly considers it appropriate to engage in a full discussion and debate on the issue."
On an online forum opened up to discuss such issues the first and only objections to the removal of this Statement come from those opposed to the Statement itself, who would like to see a proper discussion about the C&MA's stance on this issue rather than what appears to be the deferral of conversation for the sake of status quo. An apology will come in 2013, instigated by complaints at GA 2012 from some of those in favour of the Statement.
The opening up of this online forum for official workers in 2010 is part of a BOD response to a GA recommendation for furthered dialogue. Then-President Franklin Pyles commissions three papers on the issue of ordaining women which are meant to explore whether there is anything in the theology or practice of ordination in the C&MA which makes it gender specific. The exegetical paper explicitly sets out to cover ground which has not had as much coverage in prior publications by looking particularly at the gospels. At GA 2012 the papers are called biased by some who would have liked to have again had papers detailing the various theological positions. Despite prior attempts by some to discuss the papers on the online forum, however, interaction was sparse and lacked direction.
2011 - The 2011 District Conferences host round table discussion of the matter, revealing a wide spectrum of opinion and a good deal of variance not only on gender roles but also on the nature and merits of ordination.
The opening up of this online forum for official workers in 2010 is part of a BOD response to a GA recommendation for furthered dialogue. Then-President Franklin Pyles commissions three papers on the issue of ordaining women which are meant to explore whether there is anything in the theology or practice of ordination in the C&MA which makes it gender specific. The exegetical paper explicitly sets out to cover ground which has not had as much coverage in prior publications by looking particularly at the gospels. At GA 2012 the papers are called biased by some who would have liked to have again had papers detailing the various theological positions. Despite prior attempts by some to discuss the papers on the online forum, however, interaction was sparse and lacked direction.
2011 - The 2011 District Conferences host round table discussion of the matter, revealing a wide spectrum of opinion and a good deal of variance not only on gender roles but also on the nature and merits of ordination.
Spring 2012 - In the lead-up to General Assembly, as a result of their internal investigations and deliberations, the BOD determines that, as it stands, nothing in the polity restricts women either from ordination or from the senior pastorate--despite the use of the word "man" in the ordination policy and the remaining restriction of females from eldership in most congregations (which thereby also restricts from the senior pastorate). This determination was explained for the constituency in statements released online.
For what it's worth, here's the edited audio (with Scripture references) of a sermon I preached at Beverly Alliance Church in Edmonton that March:
Summer 2012 - After considerable back and forth in both the preparatory Legislative Committee sessions and then also on the floor of Assembly, at GA 2012 in Winnipeg the delegates vote 380-281 to change the wording of the ordination policy from “men” to “persons,” thus allowing the possibility of women becoming ordained.
In the final moments of Assembly, after several items of business had been tabled for lack of time, a motion was made (and then amended a few times from the floor) and carried which brings the question of whether women can be senior pastors to the next GA in 2014. A later statement released on the C&MA website thus clarifies that ordination "does not grant the right to exercise authority over others nor is it required for individuals to function as ministers including the supervision of sacraments and authority to preach or teach the word. Rather, ordination is the public confirmation and affirmation of an individual’s skills, gifts and calling to vocational ministry." It is not altogether clear whether everyone at GA who voted for or against the ordination of women saw ordination it this way--as a matter of fact the round table discussions showed a great variety of opinion on the matter--but that would have to be discussed in 2014.
Fall 2012 - After hearing concerns from the constituency, a letter is sent from President David Hearn which makes three apologies/clarifications: The first relates to the removal of the Statement on Women in Ministry from the website in 2009, the second relates to what turned out to be over-reaching alterations of the licensing policies in 1988 and 2007, and the third relates to the alleged bias of the papers released in advance of GA 2012.
The letter also suggests that the ordination decision will be thought through carefully toward implementation and, to that end, it reveals three significant decisions: The first is that the motion to discuss female senior pastors in 2014 calls for a hold to be put on any such appointments until that time, and the second is that those women whose ministry predates 2012 would have the option whether or not to pursue ordination themselves. The third of these is that those men or women for whom this is a matter of conscience may decline the conferral of ordination after the requirements have been met. (It was my presumption that this referred to the ordinands themselves, but District Conferences in the summer of 2013 indicated that some Districts (at least) had allowed local churches to decline an ordination service to their female pastors as well.)
Finally, the letter also reveals that "in the coming months, [the President will] be establishing a task force to sort out the separate question of whether women can be Senior Pastors." The details surrounding this task force were that it would "bring together those representing complementarian and egalitarian perspectives to design a pathway to see both groups valued and affirmed under the theological umbrella of biblical unity and to assist our family of churches in managing the tension such unity may require."
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| Rev Brian Thom ordains Rev Eunice Smith |
Other ordinations included including Mardi Dolfo-Smith at North Shore Alliance Church in Vancouver on Dec. 15, 2013, Anita Leung at Vancouver Chinese Alliance Church in early 2014, and Miriam Charter, Carla Olsen Draper, Ruth-Anne Gilbertson, and Patricia Love at Foothills Alliance Church in Calgary on March 16, 2014.
2014-2019
- Ordinations — Ordinations similar to Rev. Smith's (above) occurred at Hazelglen Alliance Church in Kitchener in January 2016 and May 2019. First, Rev. Janice Anderson was ordained after serving as an Alliance Missionary
for 14 years and a teacher at Emmanuel Bible
College for 16 years; then Rev. Janet Young was ordained one month before retirement after her many years of service as a licensed Alliance worker and chaplain.
- Lead Pastors — Eventually it is affirmed that women can be senior pastors wherever churches allow them to be elders. Since then, the C&MA in Canada has seen several appointments of women to the role of Lead or Senior Pastor. To my knowledge (which is only partial) these have included:
- Rev. Susanna Tan (ordained Sept 2016) became Senior Pastor of Rexdale Chinese Alliance Church in Toronto, ON, when it became 'independent' of Rexdale in 2015.
- Pastor Wendy Lowe: Senior Pastor, NEXT Christian Community, St. Albert, AB.
- Rev. Melissa Ewing: Lead Pastor, Redwood Park Church, Thunder Bay, ON.
- Melissa Jurik: Site Pastor, The Well (New Venture), Vaughan, ON.
- Glenda Bokinac: Pastor, The Bridge (New Venture), Findlater, SK.
- Rev. Michelle Dwyer: Lead Pastor, Westlife Church, Calgary, AB.
- Rev. Kyla Ward, Lead Pastor, Victoria Alliance Church
- Rev. Jenny Ong, Co-Lead Pastor, North Point Community Church
- Eldership votes: To date an unknown quantity of the C&MA's local churches have voted on the issue of women as elders or senior pastors. To my knowledge, such statistics have not been kept. I have heard estimates ranging from 10% to 30% of the constituency, but would be happy to be better informed.
2019 to present - More churches have made the move to have women serve as elders. Since there's no data available on this I can only name a few in my area that I'm aware of anecdotally, such as Southview, Okotoks, and First Alliance in Calgary. In the meantime there have also been at least two churches that were able to gather the membership for discernment but fell just shy of the 2/3 majority threshold (a holdover legislative requirement for such matters).
Those who are concerned not only about policy change but also about support and awareness for women in ministry would do well to get in touch with the Women in Leadership Collective, the founders of which are seen below. In 2024 they released a collection of stories that can be accessed here.
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| Founders of the Women in Leadership Collective of Alliance Canada |
Incidentally, in June 2023 the Christian and Missionary Alliance in the United States voted to ordain women as pastors, but unlike Alliance Canada there is no entailment that women can be elders (or, as a result, lead pastors).
Back in Canada, in July 2024 the General Assembly of Alliance Canada asked the Board to bring back a motion to change the Manual's requirement of a 2/3 majority for a congregation to change from complementarian to egalitarian. The prevailing argument on the floor was that this makes us default-complemetarian rather than default-neutral, and so the final recommendation was to make it so a 2/3 majority is required in either direction. Since it is a fairly consequential decision it was felt that a 2/3 majority remains preferable to a simple majority. It remains to be seen how this will come back to Asssembly 2026 (in Calgary), but this has the potential to close the loop on a process that began decades ago and to ensure that, for the time being at least, Alliance Canada continues to include congregations of both complementarian and egalitarian persuasions.
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The source material for much of this history is Alex Meek's Masters' thesis on the topic, which she spoke about in this 2021 symposium. It's worth hearing the story behind her research because it captures some of the personal and vocational experiences entailed in the above history. A written form of it is included in this book from New Leaf Press, edited by myself and Heather Morgan.
This is an attempt to present the facts, but is also open to clarification and discussion. I would be happy to be informed of relevant updates and denominational statistics, but since I do not monitor the comments of this blog very regularly, please email me at coutts dot jon at gmail dot com.
Please also be in touch if you would be interested in conducting further research on these matters. This could be done informally or perhaps even formally as part of a degree at Ambrose University or elsewhere.
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